Dr. Phil to Ronaiah Tuiasosopo: Are you gay? Tuiasosopo: "When you put it that way, yes ... I am confused"

Nobody cares about the Manti Te’o fake dead girlfriend story anymore, but man, it had a phenomenal three-week run. By the end of 2013, I’m not sure we’ll come across a stranger story. But at this point, it’s over, right? (I mean, besides sports teams mocking the entire ordeal.) Te’o talked to ESPN, but questions remained; then he talked to Katie Couric but many still had their doubts. We all heard the voicemails (boy or girl?) but good look finding anyone who can definitively tell you what exactly went down, why, and how.

These are just two questions that seem to pop up most frequently, but when you sit there and try to think of all the others, fatigue sets in. When a story such as this one hits the trifecta – internet, TV, radio – and crosses over from sports fans to the general public (ie, Good Morning America, CNN, your Grandma, etc) and lasts for a couple weeks, it becomes overkill.

Anyway, Dr. Phil, in his attempt to resuscitate the story, landed an interview with the mastermind of the hoax, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo. Because, obviously, somebody had to talk to this kid (and stretch it into a 2-parter, natch). The first and most obvious question: Why would someone go to the lengths he did to essentially smear a college football player?

Love!

The first thing Dr. Phil is releasing to the media – as he did on the Today Show – is the gay question.

“I asked him straight up, ‘Was this a romantic relationship with you?’ And he says yes. I said, ‘Are you then therefore gay?’ And he said, ‘When you put it that way, yes.’ And then he caught himself and said, ‘I am confused.’’”

Boy loves football star. Football star thinks he’s falling in love with a girl, when it really is the boy who loves him.